Animals

05/27/2013

You know who is really sad about the loss of biodiversity on the planet today? This guy:

Photo credit: Maurice Emetshu

Those soulful -- and creepily human -- eyes, as well as the Lesula monkey's electric blue butt, were what led judges to vote the animal onto this year's Top 10 New Species List.

Every year on Carl Linnaeus' birthday, The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University releases a top 10 list of species discovered in the previous calendar year. The list is chosen by an international team of taxonomy experts.

"Many scientists believe that as many as half of all living species could
face extinction before the end of the 21st century," said Quentin Wheeler, founding director of the insitute, in an email. "Yet the rate at which we
discover species has remained more or less constant since before World War II."

In other words, we are losing species faster than we can discover they ever existed.

The top 10 list is an attempt to raise awareness about biodiversity loss and the role that science institutes and natural history museums play in conservation and study.

Without further ado, here are some of the weirdest and wildest:

1. Lightning roach

Lucihormetica luckae. Photo credit: Peter Vrsansky & Dusan Chorvat

This rare glow-in-the-dark roach is, sadly, probably already extinct -- its only habitat was destroyed by the eruption of the Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador in December 2010. The species was named based on a single specimen collected over 70 years ago. Luminscence among terrestrial animals is rare, but scientists began discovering glowing cockroaches in 1999 and have named about a dozen since, all in places far from possible light pollution, according to the IISE.

2. Lyre sponge

Chondrocladia lyra. Photo credit: 2013 MBARI

This deep-sea sponge boasts more than just good looks. The Lyre sponge is a carnivore, and its two to six vertically-limbed "vanes" do more than just look fanstastic: they are adept at catching drifting plankton. The sponge was discovered off the coast of California in waters that are on average 3399 m deep, the IISE says.

3. Lesula monkey

Cercopithecus lomamiensis. Illustration credit: K. Honda.

The Lesula monkey is found in a remote part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is only the second new monkey discovered in Africa in the last 28 years, the IISE says. Natives of the area have long known of the monkey, however, and hunt it for bushmeat, which has led to its listing as "vulnerable." The males have a bare patch on their bottoms that is electric blue.

4. Tiny frog

Paedophryne amanuensis. Photo credit: Christopher C. Austin

This tiny frog, discovered in Papua New Guinea, is the smallest vertebrate known to science -- 3,000 times smaller than the largest, the blue whale. The average adult is only 7.7 mm. It stole the record of tiniest vertebrate from a miniscule fish found in southeast Asia, discovered in 2006.

05/22/2013

A file photo of a white rhinoceros. As few as 18,000 of the threatened species remain as reports indicate rhino poaching in Africa and Asia is skyrocketing. (Getty Images)

Why gift someone gold when there is rhino horn? After all, it’s a status symbol and costs more than gold.

That seems to be the new trend in Vietnam, a country infamous for being the main destination for rhino horn.

In his latest documentary, Bad Medicine — Illegal Trade in Rhinoceros Horns, conservationist and filmmaker Karl Amman traces the routes of illegal traffickers from Africa to the streets of Vietnam, where “rhino horns have also become a status symbol,” he told Al Jazeera.

Though the weight of rhino horns varies, an individual horn can fetch up to $350,000 and a kilogram of the horn sells for as much as $65,000.

The cost of poaching in Africa, though, is incalculable.

In South Africa, poachers kill two rhinos every day on average. A record 668 South African rhinos were killed by poachers last year, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

So, why rhino horn?

Along with the myths surrounding the healing properties of the horn, Vietnam has also recently been rife with the rumour that the horn can cure cancer.

(Reports say the rumour is being perpetuated by rhino horn dealers and traders.)

Incredible as it sounds, this rumour has allegedly been compounded at some hospitals in that country where staff have supposedly offering rhino horn to terminally ill patients.

The horn is mixed with water after being ground into a powder and consumed as a liquid.

Raveena Aulakh is the Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term, and wildlife. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

05/15/2013

A worker tests condoms in a factory in the Chinese province of Guangzhou in 2005. (AP Photo)

Well it’s official: China’s world-famous fake manufacturers have boldly gone where no men have gone before – manufacturing fake condoms.

Chinese state media trumpeted the fact this week that police had busted a fake condom operation in the southern province of Fujian – back in March, actually.

Why authorities are making a big deal of it now isn’t clear.

Perhaps they’re hoping to sound alarm bells – and alarming it is: police started to investigate after finding condoms selling on taobao.com, China’s largest online marketplace, for just 1 Yuan, or about 16 cents.

The investigation led them to a workshop in the southern province of Fujian, where they arrested two owners and 10 workers, and confiscated 2 million fake condoms.

The workshop was pushing out 20,000 “condoms” per day, packaged under brand names like Durex, as well a popular Chinese brand known as Jissbon – a somewhat unfortunate translation of the name “James Bond.”

Two other workshops were also busted, one in the central Chinese province of Henan, and another in Zhejiang province, on the south east coast.

But the story is bigger.

Chinese entrepreneurs have also been exporting the product.

Media reports from Africa, where China has spent the better part of the last decade making itself an indispensable trading partner, show fake condoms from China have landed in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, as well as in other countries.

Earlier this month, Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration announced the arrest of a trader in the capital of Lagos who had hauled in counterfeit drugs, medicines and fake Rough Rider condoms from China.

Olisameka Osefoh told police he had been working with a cartel in China.

He wasn’t the first: Osefoh’s arrest followed reports last month from the West African country of Ghana. FDA officials there warned the public to be on the look out for fake condoms from China marketed under the brand name “Be Safe.”

The state agency said batches of the condoms were inadequately lubricated, had visible holes and were prone to burst.

Bill Schiller has held bureau postings for the Star in Johannesburg, Berlin, London and Beijing. He is a NNA and Amnesty International Award winner, and a Harvard Nieman Fellow from the class of '06. Follow him on Twitter @wschiller

05/14/2013

A supporter of Nawaz Sharif chants slogans during an election campaign rally in Punjab province during last week's election campaign. The tiger is the election symbol of PML-N. Picture taken May 4. (Reuters/Mani Rana )

Hold that tiger obit.

The tiger that campaigned for Pakistan poll winner Nawaz Sharif – whose party mascot is also a tiger – was rumoured to have died of its exertions in the sizzling heat of Lahore.

But after the story went viral on the Internet BBC reporter Owen Bennett-Jones confirmed that it is alive and in “rude good health,” as is the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which won the majority of seats in the weekend election.

And unlike many voters in electrically-challenged and impoverished Pakistan, where the average wage is $1,200 a month -- and many earn much less -- the toothy beast lives in an air-conditioned den.

“It’s my baby,” said indignant owner Idrees Ahmed, a Sharif supporter who took the tiger to campaign rallies, where it was showered with rose petals as it reclined on the hood of a moving car. “If someone told you your baby had died how would you feel?”

The World Wide Fund for Nature, which defends endangered species, earlier challenged Ahmed to prove the white tigress, named Sandy, was still alive.

It followed reports that a tiger had been brought “unconscious” to a university veterinary department. Local TV news channels reported that it had died of dehydration. Actress Faryal Gohar planned to petition the Lahore High Court against the illegal use of animals at election rallies. Sharif's daughter, Maryam Nawaz, tweeted that the reports were "lies."

Confusion continued when the owner of the "dead" tiger was named as Ahmed Ali, not Idrees Ahmed -- raising questions about the reports and the tiger's fate.

The media sensation made Sandy the most popular party animal in Pakistan during a particularly bloody election campaign that saw more than 100 people die in militant bombings.

Tiger images were hoisted by crowds, cuddly tiger toys were sold in shops and stands, and fluffy stuffed tigers were propped on car hoods as a sign of solidarity with Sharif. Enthusiasts even had tigers painted on their faces.

In spite of the violence, and complaints of vote rigging, the election was a roaring success. At least for Sandy, who has retired from politics and won't have to form a government, or fight tooth and claw with political foes.

Olivia Ward has covered politics, human rights and conflicts from the former Soviet Union to South Asia, winning national and international awards.

Some may call this poetic justice: a poacher was trampled to death by the elephant he was trying to kill.

According to Zimbabwe’s Sunday Mail, the trampled remains of Solomon Manjoro were found over two weeks ago by police in Magunje, in northwestern Zimbabwe. The poacher was allegedly in the Charara National Park in Kariba.

Another alleged poacher, Noluck Tafuruka, 29, was arrested for possessing a firearm without a licence.

The Sunday Mail said the dead poacher and Tafuruka visited the national park between April 19 and 26.

The Telegraph reported that the two men had faced the elephant head-on in an attempt to shoot it but didn’t work as the elephant reportedly charged and took Manjoro down.

But overall, the pachyderms are losing the battle.

Twenty-six elephants were massacred in the Dzanga Bai World Heritage Site in the Central African Republic, said the World Wildlife Fund.

According to reports, 17 armed men entered an area locally known as the “village of elephants” where dozens of elephants gather every day.

WWF said its staff counted at least 26 elephant carcasses in and around the Bai. Four of the elephants were calves.

Local villagers had started taking meat from the carcasses, said WWF.

There were as many as 5 million elephants in Africa 70 years ago. Today, just several hundred thousand are left and in the past year, an estimated 32,000 elephants were killed for their ivory.

Black-market ivory sells for about $1,300 per pound.

Raveena Aulakh is the Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term, and wildlife. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

05/09/2013

A photo from August 2010 shows a Kenya Wildlife Services ranger standing guard over an ivory haul as it is moved through Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi. (AFP)

Bad news about elephants just doesn’t seem to end, does it?

World Wildlife Fund says poachers have entered one of Africa’s unique elephant habitats, Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, in Cameroon.

A group of 17 armed “individuals” entered the park earlier this week and headed for the Dzanga Bai, locally known as the “village of elephants," a large clearing where between 50 and 200 elephants congregate every day to drink mineral salts present in the sands, said a WWF news release

Reportedly, two WWF-supported local researchers were approached by some members of this armed group in the forest on Monday, asking for food and directions to a viewing tower used by scientists and tourists to observe elephants.

The researchers said they gave a false lead and ran away. But they soon heard gunshots.

It is not exactly clear what happened after.

“Unless swift and decisive action is taken, it appears highly likely that poachers will take advantage of the chaos and instability of the country to slaughter the elephants living in this unique World Heritage Site,” Jim Leape, WWF international director general said in the statement.

In Bouba N’Djida, Cameroon’s other national park, poachers killed at least 300 elephants in February 2012.

There were up to 5 million elephants in Africa 70 years ago. Today, just several hundred thousand are left and in the past year, an estimated 32,000 elephants have been killed for their ivory.

Black-market ivory sells for about $1,300 (CDN) per pound.

Raveena Aulakh is the Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term, and wildlife. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

05/08/2013

Nearly half of the world's wild-caught fish are ground up into fishmeal and fed to farmed fish, cattle and pigs.

It's a huge business. Last year Chile exported at least $535 million worth of fishmeal, while Peru sold a staggering $1.6 billion, The New York Times reported.

As environmental activists warn the world's oceans are fast depleting, an African company has come up with a possible solution to the problem: flies and maggots.

In Cape Town Tuesday night, South African tech firm AgriProtein won a $100,000 prize for "technological innovation" sponsored by the UN. AgriProtein, which is also working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has developed a new product it calls Magmeal.

AgriProtein breeds flies at its production facility near Cape Town. A single female fly can lay between 750 to over 1,000 eggs per week. The eggs will then hatch into larvae, according to a profile of the company written last year by the website TradeInvestAfrica.

"Larvae go through three life stages in a 72-hour period, and are
harvested just becoming pupae. The harvested larvae are then dried on a
fluidised bed dryer, milled into flake form and packed according to
customers’ preferences," according to the report.

Chickens and other livestock should have no problem eating the dried maggots instead of fishmeal, the company figures.

AgriProtein was among 900 applications from 45 countries who bid on the 2013 Innovation Prize for Africa Awards.

According to Techmoran.com, some other finalists included: SavvyLoo, an eco waterless toilet that drains liquids
from solids for environmental impact; The TBag Water Filter, a filter that cleans polluted water and The Malaria pf/PAN Test Kit, a malaria treatment test that determines within 30 minutes if treatment is effective.

Rick Westhead is a foreign
affairs writer at The Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South
Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on
international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

05/03/2013

While all eyes were on China's bird flu outbreak, Saudi Arabia reminded the world of another brewing virus every bit as worrisome: the novel coronavirus.

Oh yeah - remember the novel coronavirus? Until H7N9 came along and shone the world's klieg lights on China, the coronavirus was the scary new disease keeping public health officials awake at night. The virus is genetically related to the virus that caused SARS and up until Wednesday, it had already infected 17 people and killed 11.

Then, like a jealous first-born fed up with playing second fiddle to mommy's new baby, the coronavirus decided to screech at the top of its lungs and reclaim our attentions. On Wednesday, in one fell swoop, the Saudi Arabian government announced seven new cases -- five already dead. Suddenly, the coronavirus' tally shot up to 24 cases and 16 deaths.

Very few details were given and the timing of the announcement, along with its paucity of information, prompted some to question the transparency of the Saudi Arabian government in communicating news about this new virus. Not even the World Health Organization had much information by the time evening rolled around in Geneva, not even the patients' ages, genders or illness onset dates.

But this morning, the Saudi Arabian deputy minister for public health, Dr. Ziad Memish, revealed many more details about these new cases on ProMed, including the patients' ages, genders and illness onset dates. He also announced three additional cases, bringing the global total to 27.

Based on the information provided, every new patient is a man with the exception of one 53-year-old woman who fell sick on April 27. The ten are all between the ages of 24 and 94 and every single patient had at least one comorbidity, meaning they had a concurrent but unrelated illness. The first person to get sick was a 59-year-old man who became ill on April 14 and died five days later; the most recent person to get sick developed symptoms on April 30 and has pneumonia but is doing 'well.'

One thing stands out from this update: the fact that one patient is a "family contact" of another patient who is already dead. The WHO followed up with its own press release on Friday and acknowledged that two confirmed cases belong to the same family -- which raises the possibilities that both were exposed to the same source of infection or one relative gave the virus to another. The second, of course, is the more concerning scenario of the two -- and we already have evidence that the virus can spread from person to person, at least in a limited way.

As little as we know about H7N9, we know even less about the coronavirus -- but this one has already shown signs of being capable of spreading between people and will certainly prove more difficult to treat.

So yes, coronavirus, thank you for the reminder. We will continue to worry about you too.

Jennifer Yang is the Star’s global health reporter.
She previously worked as a general assignment reporter and won a NNA in
2011 for her explanatory piece on the Chilean mining disaster. Follow
her on Twitter: @jyangstar

Well, scientists trying to track Bengal tigers are also using a unique method: tracking poop.

Here is why: Bengal tigers are native to Southeast Asia and there are about 1,850 in the wild. But since it’s tough to count them because they are so elusive, researchers in Nepal have developed a system they think will make it easier to figure out how many tigers live there. They are using genetic data out of their poop, reports Mother Jones.

True thing.

The Nepal Tiger Genome Project has collected more than a thousand samples from the southern part of the country known as the Terai Arc landscape, believed to be one of the last remaining tiger habitats. DNA from the poop allows researchers to study and catalog the genetic material and to create a database of all the country’s tigers.

To gather the samples, the project sent surveyors — armed with specimen vials and field surveys for logging the GPS location, type of forest cover, and condition of the scat — into four national parks and the wildlife corridors that tigers are thought to use.

The hope was they would collect 700 samples but the crew turned up 1,200 over two months.

“We collected a lot more s*&% than we thought we would,” Dibesh Karmacharya, executive director of the project, said to Mother Jones.

The poop project isn’t just useful to keep track of Bengal tiger numbers but also is a weapon to tackle poachers. If part of a tiger is confiscated from poachers, researchers can use the DNA to see if it’s been previously cataloged in their system.

The project was founded in 2011.

Raveena Aulakh is the Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term, and wildlife. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

New research shows that caribou play a role in climate warming in the Arctic. Despite declining herd numbers, their grazing is controlling plant growth in the Arctic and thus reducing the effect of global warming.

The research was done by Tara Zamin, a PhD student at Queen’s University in Kingston and was published in Journal of Ecology. She worked on the study with Paul Grogan, a Queen's professor.

Caribou are recognized as sources of food and clothing for communities in the Arctic but it is now also being acknowledged as a “key component to controlling tundra plant growth and therefore has been left out of models that project changes in arctic ecosystems and arctic warming.”

Even at low population sizes, caribou restrict tundra plant growth, which indirectly may help restrict climate warming, said Zamin in a statement.

“Plant growth has been increasing in the arctic tundra over the past several decades. These changes in plant biomass could increase climate warming by increasing the amount of heat absorbed by the Earth’s surface.”

The researcher studied the impact of the Bathurst caribou herd in the Northwest Territories for five years — it was at a time when the herd population declined from around 166,000 to 31,000. The Bathurst herd had been made up of around 475,000 caribou in the mid-1980s. She compared plant communities in areas open to caribou grazing and those closed off to it.

Caribou remain an integral part of tundra ecosystem functioning, Zamin concluded. “This means that effective caribou conservation is not only critical to the subsistence needs and cultural identity of northerners, it is key to understanding potential climate change impacts.”

Raveena Aulakh is the Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term, and wildlife. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

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